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Motives for Building Oh Hey World

I’ve always been entrepreneurial. I sold candy on the bus in middle school (made little to no money but covered the cost of candy for myself). I bought and sold sports cards throughout my youth (never made any money). I started a lawn mowing business in 8th grade (made a little money).

Those endeavors were all done in good fun as a form of entertainment, and to make a little bit of extra spending money to buy my next candy bar or pack of baseball cards.

But when faced with the prospect of putting tens of thousands of dollars of my own money into a real company that employees count on to pay their bills — it’s a whole different ball game. Starting a company just to start a company is, well, plain foolish. As is starting a company with the sole goal of flipping it. Prior to embarking on the journey of building Oh Hey World with my own time and money, I had to ensure the company was being started for the right reasons.

My motives for building Oh Hey World revolve around solving a real world problem I face while traveling – the inefficient nature of finding and connecting with friends and other similar travelers while on the road – teamed with making the world a better place for millions of people. In the travel context, making the world a better place means getting more people to travel.

Why?

People should lead less sheltered & materialistic, and more simplistic lives — and traveling to varied cultures is the best way to ensure that happens. It’s hard to continue to think and live the same lifestyle once you’ve seen how the rest of the world lives.

People will travel more when it becomes extremely easy to find friends and travel mates to spend time with in a given location. When I ask people why they don’t travel more, the two biggest obstacles I hear are finding travel companions & money. The vast majority of people are afraid of solo travel. Anything we can do to remove that roadblock is a step in the right direction.

Drew Meyers is the co-founder of Horizon & Oh Hey World. He worked for Zillow from September of 2005 to January of 2010 on the marketing team managing Zillow’s API program and various online partnerships. Founder of Geek Estate Blog, a multi-author blog focused on real estate technology for real estate professionals, and myKRO.org, a blog devoted to exploring the world of microfinance. As passionate as you get about travel.